Railroads for National Defense (RND) [May need to be moved]

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of discussion that I can find about this:

On their website, [url=http://www.tea.army.mil/dodprog/RND/default.htm][img]http://www.tea.army.mil/images/Newteahome.gif[/img][/url] wrote:
Railroads for National Defense (RND)

The Railroads for National Defense Program (RND) ensures the readiness capability of the national railroad network to support defense deployment and peacetime needs. The Program integrates defense rail needs into civil sector planning affecting the Nation’s railroad system. Rail transportation is extremely important to DOD since our heavy and tracked vehicles will deploy by rail to seaports of embarkation. The RND Program, in conjunction with the US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), established the Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET) to ensure DOD’s minimum rail needs are identified and coordinated with appropriate transportation authorities. STRACNET is an interconnected and continuous rail line network consisting of over 36,000 miles of track serving over 130 defense installations. We work with state DOTs, the American Association of Railroads (AAR), the Surface Transportation Board (STB), the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA), the Railway Industrial Clearance Association (RICA), the FRA, and individual railroad companies to protect this railroad infrastructure.

Click the above image or this link for their site: http://www.tea.army.mil/dodprog/RND/default.htm.

On their website, [url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/stracnet.htm][img]http://www.globalsecurity.org/images/global-security.gif[/img][/url] wrote:
Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET)

During the Great War, getting the troops to their training centers, then to ports of embarkation, and finally across the Atlantic was such a mammoth undertaking and had to be executed on such an emergency basis that confusion and mismanagement could hardly have been unexpected. To co-ordinate rail transportation, the government established a Railway War Board, which later became the Railroad Administration, but so congested did the railroads become that the government eventually seized and ran them through the Railroad Administration.

Under its Railroads and Highways for National Defense program, DOD, with the support of the Department of Transportation (DOT), ensures the Nation's rail and highway infrastructure can support defense emergencies. The Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET) consists of 38,800 miles of rail lines important to national defense and provides service to 193 defense installations whose mission requires rail service.

The military places heavy and direct reliance on railroads to integrate bases and connect installations to predominantly maritime ports of embarkation. Mainlines, connectors, and clearance lines must all combine to support movement of heavy and/or oversized equipment. To ensure that military needs are factored into railroad industry decisions that may impact on national defense, the Department of Defense relies on the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC). In this capacity, MTMC identifies facilities of the railroad infrastructure important to national defense, informs the commercial and civil sectors of Defense needs, and encourages the retention and upkeep of railroad assets vital to support military movements.

READ THE WHOLE STORY AT: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... racnet.htm or click their logo above.

What's to discuss? Railroads were nationalized before (WWI - United States Railroad Administration). Also, they worked very closely with the government during WWII to prevent nationalization. Truman threatened to nationalize them again in 1946 during a strike which was promptly settled after the threat. Seems like a no-brainer that, in the event of a national emergency. provisions like this need to be in place, conspiracy theorists notwithstanding.

Ocala Mike wrote:What's to discuss? Railroads were nationalized before (WWI - United States Railroad Administration). Also, they worked very closely with the government during WWII to prevent nationalization. Truman threatened to nationalize them again in 1946 during a strike which was promptly settled after the threat. Seems like a no-brainer that, in the event of a national emergency. provisions like this need to be in place, conspiracy theorists notwithstanding.

Well, how might this affect things like Amtrak's budget[¹]? Trackage/service issues for the freight railroads[²] such as embargoes/abandonments/condition/etc. Funding of projects? I'm skeptical that a freight railroad[²] will pay it's own funds to keep a non-profitable line operating [or in useable shape] simply out of a desire to please DOD.. But I've been wrong before.


The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has defined a core rail system known as Principal Railroad Lines. These rail lines have the following attributes: [¹]Amtrak service; [²]National defense essential; or annual freight volumes exceeding 20 million gross ton-miles per mile (MGTM/M). An advantage of the Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET) is the ability of these lines to transport oversize (high/wide) loads.

The above paragraph is from 's "Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET)" page.

I'm not a budget "wonk," but I would think all of that would (or should) come out of the DoD budget; nothing to do with Amtrak for me.

The links posted link in turn to several survivalist and similar sites on the fringes of the military "mainstream". Furthermore, the use of the term "Great War", as a reference to World War I, quickly went out of use after World War II began; so I have to assume that whoever created the site is pushing a specific agenda, and didn't bother with too much research.

At the time of the Vietnam-related defense build-up of the Mid -and late Sixties I was in my teens, and lucky enough to live not too far from Harrisburg and the PRR's Middle Division Main Line . While I can attest that a few of the Pennsy's premier freight schedules sometimes operated in multiple sections, and there was the occasional special move of tanks, armored personnel carriers and the like, "troop trains" had been almost entirely phased out by the late Fifities, and the writings of authors like W E B Griffin, and others friendly toward, and familiar with the military tend to confirm this.

Our present defense system has been "streamlined" -- regeared toward a rapid response and limited engagements, but over a wider portion of the globe. Old Iron Horse still has a role to play from time to time, but is nowhere near as prominent, and the limited flexibility of a slimmed-down rail plant seems likely to keep it that way.

2nd trick op wrote:The links posted link in turn to several survivalist and similar sites on the fringes of the military "mainstream". Furthermore, the use of the term "Great War", as a reference to World War I, quickly went out of use after World War II began; so I have to assume that whoever created the site is pushing a specific agenda, and didn't bother with too much research.

At the time of the Vietnam-related defense build-up of the Mid -and late Sixties I was in my teens, and lucky enough to live not too far from Harrisburg and the PRR's Middle Division Main Line . While I can attest that a few of the Pennsy's premier freight schedules sometimes operated in multiple sections, and there was the occasional special move of tanks, armored personnel carriers and the like, "troop trains" had been almost entirely phased out by the late Fifities, and the writings of authors like W E B Griffin, and others friendly toward, and familiar with the military tend to confirm this.

Our present defense system has been "streamlined" -- regeared toward a rapid response and limited engagements, but over a wider portion of the globe. Old Iron Horse still has a role to play from time to time, but is nowhere near as prominent, and the limited flexibility of a slimmed-down rail plant seems likely to keep it that way.

It should be noted that the is a U.S. Department Of Defense (DOD) site. I find it highly doubtful that this organization would include any links to "survivalist and similar sites on the fringes of the military "mainstream"".

My link to "Global Security.Org" is to point out the STRACNET info that they have on that page. This in no way conveys any endorsement of their site or comment on the veracity of the information and/or links contained there within.

I recall a fair number of freight trains coming to the then extant Bayonne, NJ Military Ocean Terminal ("MOTBY") incidental to the start of the Iraq war. Mostly vehicles of various sorts to be transloaded to ships.

As to troop transport, decades ago that role was ceded to air - US civilian passenger airlines are in effect the fleet that would be utilized should massive troop movements be required. That is a major consideration for federal funding of airports and the air traffic control system, the latter is a blend of military and civilian systems.